20 Best Video Game Stories Ever

Bioware's flagship franchise may not have had the best first outing, especially in hindsight, but Mass Effect 2 was what put the series on the map, and for good reason.

After (momentarily) thwarting the eldritch monsters known as The Reapers in the first game, the second game begins with The Reapers getting payback by blasting Shepard into deep space where they then burn up in a nearby planet's orbit.

Two years later, Shepard wakes up, having been put back together by the human supremacist group Cerberus, who want to help Shepard stop The Reapers. And considering that the rest of the galaxy would prefer to believe that The Reapers don't exist, beggars can't be choosers. Shepard must now put together a team of specialists to go on a suicide mission to stop The Reapers' latest scheme.

And it IS a suicide mission. You can get everyone through the final mission alive, but doing so requires doing a lot of optional content that the game doesn't outright tell you about, so first time players will most likely get to see some of the best written characters in gaming history die brutal, horrible deaths.

With amazing dialogue, brilliant character writing, and one of the finest examples of a game holding the players' feet to the fire this author can think of, Mass Effect 2 stands head and shoulders above the rest of the series.